The Bucs win the season opener 13-6 over the 49ers. Sapp has 2½ sacks and gestures to fans that the 49ers were dead by slicing an imaginary knife across his throat. He also is partly responsible for cutting down quarterback Steve Young (above, concussion) and Jerry Rice (knee) in the first half. "That's what we expected to do," Sapp said. "We didn't expect anything less. Coach (Tony) Dungy talked about it all week — perception against reality. The perception was this powerhouse team from San Francisco was going to come in here and steamroll us and we weren't going to let it happen."

In the NFC division playoff game against the Packers, Sapp has three sacks, forces two fumbles and recovers one. On several occasions, he and Green Bay QB Brett Favre go face mask-to-face mask. "On one particular play, I do remember Sapp got tired, and (he was coming out of the game) and Brett was like, 'That's right, go over there and take a blow,' " Packers running back Dorsey Levens said. "Warren got pretty upset. There was a guy coming in for Warren, and he told him to go back (to the sideline) and Sapp went back in the game."

January 2000

Sapp is named NFL defensive player of the year for the 1999 season. He has a career-best 12½ sacks and three forced fumbles. "It's something that I can't fathom," Sapp said. "If (people consider me) the most dominant guy that plays defense in this league, I love it, and I'll take it."

Nov. 26, 2001

On a Monday night in St. Louis, Sapp gets two sacks, and forces and recovers a fumble, leading the Bucs to a 24-17 win against the Rams. He drops Marshall Faulk for a 4-yard loss early in the third quarter and earns NFC defensive player of the week honors.

Nov. 24, 2002

Sapp blocks the Packers' Chad Clifton during an interception return, knocking him out of the game. In an exchange caught on camera, Packers coach Mike Sherman confronts Sapp on his way to the locker room after the game. Sapp challenges him: "If you're so tough, put a jersey on. … If I was 25 without my kids and a conscience, I would have given him a (butt)-whipping right on the 30-yard line."

Sept. 21, 2003

Sapp, lining up as a tight end on offense, catches a 6-yard touchdown from Brad Johnson late in the first half of a 31-10 Bucs win against the Falcons. He mimics the dance in the video of Beyonce's Crazy in Love. "I didn't do it quite like she does," the 303-pounder says. "But she's got a little more assets than I do."

Oct. 12, 2003

After the league tells him he can no longer skip through opposing teams' pregame drills, Sapp responds in a CBS pregame interview: "It's a slave system. Make no mistake about it; slave master say you can't do it, don't do it. They'll make an example out of you. … I guess I've become larger than life."

Sapp, by this time a Raider, throws a sideline tantrum because of their ugly play. "It was something that was really, really on the edge of, like, gay porn," he explains. "When it's real bad football, that's what we call it: gay porn. Something you don't want to watch."

Secret recordings. Undercover agents. Bribes. Federal indictments. College basketball's latest national scandal into the unsavory methods that coaches, agents and shoe company representatives use to make inroads with elite high school prospects has it all — including connections to Tampa Bay.

UPDATE, 5:59 p.m.: The Rays are officially eliminated from the playoff race with their next loss or the Twins next win. ... Both LHP Xavier Cedeno and 3B coach Charlie Montoyo got word that their familes in Puerto Rico were safe and their homes withstood the hurricane. ... Ramos said he wasn't focused on the …